Live Online – The Early History of Wonderwell and the Family that Built and Loved It

Presented by Megan Carnarius and sponsored in partnership with the Springfield Historical Society

Presentation begins at 6:00 pm ET live from Wonderwell Mountain Refuge in Springfield, NH. You can also attend in person by registering with this link.

In 1911, Nell and Joseph Stoddard built a grand summer house and barn in the beautiful and rural Springfield, New Hampshire. The property featured an open meadow with views of surrounding forest and mountains and a well with great-tasting water that never ran dry, and the home became known as Wonderwell. A community of friends and family gathered here and enjoyed fellowship with meals, parties and dancing mixed with countryside relaxation. They also did poetry readings, created plays and held musical performances – imagine two baby grand pianos playing a duet with music wafting on summer breezes.

Wonderwell was built during a remarkable period of transition – from horse to car, oil lamps to electricity, and mail to telephones. This presentation about Wonderwell highlights the family’s time with this property, with historic photos, artifacts, and stories. The house moved into other hands in 1933, and was sold to the new owners with all of the original furnishings, which remained part of the home through the mid ’80’s. After serving as a summer family home, the house was transformed into a bed and breakfast and then a foster home, and was purchased in 2011 on its 100-year anniversary by Natural Dharma Fellowship, who renamed it Wonderwell Mountain Refuge.

The presenter, Megan Carnarius, is the great-granddaughter of Nell and Joseph Stoddard. She spent her childhood making pilgrimages to the property and listening to stories about the early years of Wonderwell. As the keeper of the photos and artifacts, she took time during the fall and winter of 2020 to put a book together to capture the history for the current stewards of the house. She will be visiting Wonderwell to provide a Contemplative Caregivers Retreat and is honored to be asked to present for the Springfield Historical Society in partnership with Natural Dharma Fellowship and Wonderwell Mountain Refuge. Megan will have her book available for purchase at  the event with a portion of the proceeds donated to Wonderwell’s Capital Fund.

Megan’s talk will be recorded and will be available after the presentation. More information about accessing the recording will follow.

Megan and several of her colleagues from the Alchemy of Aging Project will also be teaching the Contemplative Caregivers retreat at Wonderwell Nov. 11-13. Both residential and online components are available.

ZOOM LINK
The Zoom link will be sent several days before the presentation t to all those registered by then. If you register after that date, you’ll receive the link with your confirmation email shortly after submitting your registration. If you don’t see an email from Natural Dharma Registrar or Wonderwell Mountain Refuge, it may have mistakenly gone to your spam folder or to Promotions or Updates in Gmail.

Important: Please put these two email addresses in your Contact or Safe-Send list to make sure you receive our emails:

• retreats@wonderwellrefuge.org
• register+wonderwellrefuge@retreat.guru